News Release – For Immediate Release
Omaha’s Smoke-Free Petition Language Given to City Clerk
Contact: Mark Welsch 402-558-0463
Mike Salkin 402-660-6453
Mike Salkin 402-660-6453
Omaha, NE, USA, Thursday, April 20, 2006 at 10:30a.m. the “Citizens For a Smoke-Free Omaha” Ballot Question Committee announced the launching of their effort to place a smoke-free worksite ordinance, for the City of Omaha, on the November 2006 ballot. Citizens “For a Smoke-Free Omaha” presented proposed ordinance language to the Omaha City Clerk, Buster Brown, to be converted into a petition.
Approximately 9,325 valid signatures are needed on the petitions by the first week of July in order to put the issue before the people on the November 2006 ballot, if the Omaha City Council does not enact the Ordinance.
“First and foremost, this is a health issue,” said Dr. Reed Peters, one of the organizers of “Citizens For a Smoke-Free Omaha”. He continued, “As a physician I feel an obligation to do all I can to protect people from secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is not just an inconvenience, it causes death and disease in non-smokers, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma and cancer.”
Mike Salkin, another organizer of “Citizens For a Smoke-Free Omaha” said, “461 cities and counties in 33 states, plus 13 states have comprehensive smoke-free laws. Many scientific studies have been done, using sales tax receipts from bars and restaurants in smoke-free communities.
All of them have shown that smoke-free laws improve, or worse case scenario, do not change the overall income of bars or restaurants. Other cities and states, including California, Montana, Chicago and Washington DC, also incorporated a sunset clause for some businesses in their laws.”
Mark Welsch, the final organizer of “Citizens For a Smoke-Free Omaha”, to speak today said, “Under the ‘Citizens For a Smoke-Free Omaha’ proposed smoke-free ordinance, over 98% of all businesses in Omaha will be smoke-free on January 2, 2007.
The only exceptions will be private residences, except when used as a licensed childcare, an adult day care or a health care facility, up to 20% of hotel and motel rooms, private and semiprivate rooms in nursing homes and long-term care facilities when occupied by only smokers, medical research facilities studying effects of smoking and some stand-alone bars. There is a two-year sunset clause for stand-alone bars.
The sunset clause applies to only those stand-alone bars without kitchens that do not allow minors into their buildings. This ordinance should increase, or at least not change, Keno revenue for the City of Omaha, because about half of the Keno locations are bars and half are restaurants.
Many nonsmokers will probably start playing or play more Keno because they won’t be forced to breathe secondhand smoke in all of the Keno locations. For two years, the smokers will continue to be able to smoke in stand-alone bars with Keno.
There are approximately 225 stand-alone bars in Omaha. The bar phase-in is included in the petition Ordinance as a way for those businesses to adapt their business plans to encourage nonsmokers, who have stopped going to their businesses, to return. If a bar is a place where families take their children, they should not allow smoking.”
Related information may be found at:
http://www.smokefreenebraska.org/ – GASP’s website – includes a clickable link so people can tell us if they want to help with the petition drive in Omaha. They do not have to be an Omaha resident to help.
http://www.no-smoke.org/pdf/100ordlisttabs.pdf – ANR’s list of Municipalities with Local 100% Smokefree Laws.
In January of 2005, the Omaha City Council passed an ordinance, which restricted smoking in over 98% of Omaha businesses. Mayor Mike Fahey vetoed the ordinance on February 1 on the grounds that not all businesses would be included. The council did not override his veto.
